Honestly, if you were hanging out in London in 1677, you probably weren't heading to the theater to see a "feminist manifesto." You were there for the masks. The music. The chaos.
The Duke’s Theatre at Dorset Garden was the place to be, and The Rover; or, The Banish’d Cavaliers was the hottest ticket in town. People usually think of old plays as stuffy, but this one? It was a riot. It was a messy, loud, drunken romp through Naples during Carnival.
And it was written by a woman who’d been a spy, spent time in debtors' prison, and basically had to write or starve.
Her name was Aphra Behn.
Who was the real "Rover"?
Most people assume the title refers to one guy, the wild and somewhat terrifying Willmore. He’s the "Rover"—a wanderer, a rake, someone who moves from woman to woman like he’s shopping for shoes. But that’s a bit of a surface-level take.
The play is actually about a group of English Royalists exiled during the Interregnum. They are "rovers" because they have no home. They’re stuck in Italy while Cromwell is back in England making life miserable for everyone who likes fun.
But here’s the kicker: the women are the ones really doing the roving.
Take Hellena. She’s supposed to be a nun. Literally, her brother is about to lock her in a convent. Instead of crying about it, she puts on a mask, heads into the street, and decides she’s going to find a man. It’s wild.
The Rover: Why it actually matters today
We talk a lot about "female agency" in modern movies, but Behn was doing it centuries ago with way more at stake.
In the 1670s, women were basically property. You were your father's daughter or your husband's wife. If you were a playwright like Behn, people basically called you a prostitute because you were "selling yourself" for public consumption.
She didn't care. Or rather, she cared enough to write a play that shoved that hypocrisy right back in the audience's face.
The play is built on a series of uncomfortable mirrors:
- The Noble Woman: Florinda, who wants to marry for love but is being sold to the highest bidder by her brother.
- The Courtesan: Angellica Bianca, a high-class prostitute who hangs her portrait outside her house like a billboard.
- The Virgin: Hellena, who uses her wit to navigate a world that wants to shut her up.
Behn asks a pretty pointed question: Is there actually a difference between a marriage for money and prostitution? Spoiler: She doesn't think so.
That one scene everyone avoids talking about
If you read The Rover as a lighthearted romp, you’re missing the dark stuff. There’s a scene where Willmore, the supposed "hero," tries to rape Florinda because he’s drunk and thinks she’s a prostitute.
It’s brutal.
Modern directors often struggle with how to stage this. Do you make Willmore a villain? Do you play it for laughs like they did in the 17th century? (Yeah, they actually did that).
The fact that Behn includes these moments—the constant threat of sexual violence—shows she wasn't just writing a comedy. She was writing about what it felt like to be a woman in a world where men felt entitled to everything they saw.
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The Spy who stayed in the cold
Aphra Behn wasn't just some poet. She was a total badass.
King Charles II sent her to Antwerp to spy on the Dutch. She went by the code name "Astrea." The problem was, the King was terrible at paying his bills. She ended up broke, begging for money to get back to England, and eventually landed in prison for debt.
When she got out, she turned to the only thing she had left: her brain.
She became the first Englishwoman to earn a living solely by her pen. Virginia Woolf famously said that all women should drop flowers on Behn's grave because she earned them the right to speak their minds.
How to actually read (or watch) The Rover
If you’re coming to this play for the first time, don't get bogged down in the "thees" and "thous." It’s basically a Restoration version of The Hangover, but with more swords and better outfits.
- Watch the masks: In the play, the Carnival setting allows the characters to be who they actually are because they’re wearing disguises. It’s a paradox.
- Look at the money: Every single relationship in this play is tied to cash. Willmore has none. Angellica has tons. Hellena has a dowry.
- Ignore the "Happy Ending": Everyone gets married at the end, but Behn leaves you wondering if it’s actually a good thing. Willmore is probably going to cheat on Hellena within a week.
Recent Productions to Check Out
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) did a fantastic version in 2016 directed by Loveday Ingram. They leaned into the heat and the music of the setting. It felt dangerous.
If you can find a recording of that, watch it. It’s way better than just reading the text in a quiet library.
Your Next Steps with Aphra Behn
If you're looking to get deeper into the world of 17th-century drama and the woman who broke all the rules, here is how you should actually spend your time:
- Read the play with a focus on Angellica Bianca. Most people focus on the young lovers, but Angellica is the heart of the play. She’s the one who actually gets her heart broken and points a gun at the guy who did it.
- Check out "Oroonoko." This is Behn’s most famous novel. It’s about an African prince sold into slavery in Surinam. It’s one of the first English novels ever written and it’s just as complicated as The Rover.
- Look into the "Breeches Roles." In the Restoration, actresses would wear tight-fitting trousers to play men. It was a way for the audience to see their legs (scandalous!), but Behn used it to let her female characters move through the world with more freedom.
Behn died in 1689 and is buried in Westminster Abbey, but not in Poets' Corner. She's in the cloisters. Even in death, she was just a little bit outside the "proper" establishment.
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Which, honestly, is exactly where she belongs.